The hartal called by Opposition parties in Kerala affected city bus services today as the vehicles were being stopped by agitators at the Wayalar border. This caused much hardship to passengers.

The Congress and the BJP called the hartal to protest against the police action on the parents and friends of Jishnu Paranoy who committed suicide in a private engineering college three months ago.

This strike also affected farmers in Coimbatore who sell vegetables on daily basis directly to Kerala. “I am unable to enter Kerala by bus and to sell vegetables today, a thing I have been doing for long,” said a farmer A Velmurugan.

A transport official here said that buses were not entering Kerala border as there were fears of the vehicles being attacked by the agitators. So services were stopped just before the border, he added.